France’s Constitutional Council withdraws large parts of the migration law
Demonstration against the migration law in Paris
Source: dpa/Thomas Padilla
The French Constitutional Council has rejected large parts of the controversial migration law – including the higher hurdles for family reunification. The decision is in the interests of the government, which itself had raised constitutional doubts.
DThe French Constitutional Council has largely overturned the controversial migration law. Three of the articles were at least partially unconstitutional, and more than 30 of the 86 articles had nothing to do with the original aim of the text, the institution emphasized. The waiting period for non-EU foreigners for social benefits and the higher hurdles for family reunification were rejected.
Under pressure from the conservative opposition party Les Républicains, on whose votes President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp depended for its adoption, Parliament tightened the law significantly more than the government would have liked. Since the government and Macron have constitutional doubts on some points, they submitted the law to the Constitutional Council.
The French Constitutional Council, similar to the German Federal Constitutional Court, reviews laws and projects for their legality. The law’s decision is entirely in the interests of the government and also of the left-wing camp, which recently mobilized for nationwide demonstrations against the law at the weekend.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin welcomed the fact that the Constitutional Council had approved all the articles in the draft originally submitted by the government. “The government notes the rejection of numerous articles added in Parliament,” he wrote on the online service X.
The law, which Macron pushed as an important project, is intended to better regulate migration and fundamentally improve integration. It is causing resentment in parts of the government camp, and some MPs voted against it in parliament. Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest against the tightening. According to media reports, other ministers had also considered resigning.
Macron saw his government permanently weakened
There was also criticism that the law could only pass parliament because the right-wing National Rassemblement National did not vote against but for the project. Macron saw his government, which has not had an absolute majority in parliament for a year and a half, permanently weakened by the wrangling over the law. In January, he reshuffled the government and replaced Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne with the whiz kid Gabriel Attal, who is now leading the new government at just 34 years old.
What is particularly controversial in the law is that regular migrants should only receive social benefits such as housing subsidies or family allowances later than before. The rule that allows people born in France to automatically become French should be changed. Dual nationals who commit crimes against law enforcement officers should also lose their French nationality.